Edmund Dick Taylor

Colonel Edmund Dick Taylor (October 18, 1804 – December 4, 1891) was an American businessman, politician, and soldier from Illinois. He is remembered as the first person to suggest that the United States should issue paper currency ("greenbacks") during the American Civil War.

He was born Edmund Richard Taylor in Lunenburg County, Virginia, son of Giles Y Taylor (1766–1830) and Francine "Sina" Stokes. (Another account says that he was born at Fairfield Courthouse, Pennsylvania.) In later years, he preferred to use his middle name rather than his first name, and used in its short form. Thus he became known as "Dick" Taylor, and his middle initial was written "D" in formal documents.

According to his obituary, Taylor "came to Illinois in 1811, settling in Shawneetown on the Ohio river. Although but a child then he had only himself to depend on, and at the age of 16 loaded a flat boat with salt and provisions and floated down the river into Arkansas, there to trade his salt to the Indians for furs. After selling out he traded the flatboat for ponies and packed his pelts back to Shawneetown on their backs." In the fall of 1823, he began general merchandising with Colonel John Taylor in Springfield, Illinois. On 18 September 1829, he married Margaret Taylor (born 28 December 1813 in Kentucky), the daughter of Col. John Taylor and Elizabeth (Burkhead) Taylor.

In 1830, he was elected to the Illinois State Legislature, representing Sangamon County. In 1832 he was re-elected, defeating several challengers including Abraham Lincoln. Taylor and Achilles Morris were the only men to defeat Lincoln in a direct election. In 1834 he was elected to the Illinois Senate from Sangamon County. Another one of his opponents was Methodist circuit preacher Peter Cartwright, "who, in one stump speeches, called Taylor a beardless youth. Taylor's response was that, though he might be a beardless youth, he would move the capital from old Vandalia to Springfield if he was elected. He was elected, and proved that his promise was not an idle one."

In 1835, he was appointed by President Andrew Jackson as Receiver of Public Moneys in Chicago, where he was in charge of substantial sales of federal land. After holding this position for four years, he returned to the private sector. He continued to play a leading role in Democratic Party politics in Illinois.

Taylor was a pioneer of the coal industry in Illinois. In 1823 he took an interest in coal and opened the West End Shaft, also known as West End Coal Mine. He had a lead mine at Galena.

In 1856, he sank a shaft in LaSalle County, Illinois, operating as the Northern Illinois Coal and Iron Company. He also owned other mines in that area.

On 18 February 1863, at a convention in Chicago of the coal operators in Illinois, Edmund was appointed Chairman.